Innovators

Legal Professionals

Attorneys, licensing and technology transfer professionals — learn how you can use this resource to help your clients, students, or your overall brand in the competitive world of intellectual property.

Educators

Teachers and professors — prepare your students for the new economy and the role intellectual property will play in their future careers.

What You'll Learn

Read The Intangible Advantage to equip yourself with the basics of intellectual property. Protecting innovations and creative work is more crucial than ever in today’s Knowledge Economy.

Patents

How do exclusive rights to your inventions benefit you and society? Find out what’s patentable, what’s not, and how to navigate the patent system successfully.

Copyrights

Learn how you can protect a wide variety of artistic and intellectual works. What’s Fair Use – and what’s not?

Trademarks

Why are trademarked words, names, and symbols so valuable – and how can you protect them?

Trade Secrets

Do you have to publicly disclose your creation to gain legal protection?

About The Book

The Intangible Advantage is the first-ever intellectual property book written for ordinary citizens.

The Intellectual Property Book for Today’s Economy

Over the last 40 years, intellectual property has grown from an arcane, narrowly-specialized legal field into a major force in American social and economic life. It comprises an astonishing 45 percent of total U.S. GDP today, and represents 80 percent of the market value of all publicly-traded companies in the U.S.

Indeed, intellectual property has become the new watchword in almost any career today. Look around and you’ll see IP’s imprint everywhere.

From Silicon Valley startups to Fortune 500 board rooms, from MIT engineering labs to Wall Street trading desks, and from college business seminars to debates in Congress over global trade policy, intellectual property issues now lie at the heart of almost every arena of modern life today.

As a result, any young person today who does not understand at least the basics of intellectual property — and its value and role in science, business, arts, and the professions — will find him or herself at a distinct disadvantage in the world of tomorrow.

Written by Experts

Written by Pulitzer Prize-nominated intellectual property expert David Kline, with former Undersecretary of Commerce and Director of the Patent Office David Kappos serving as executive editor.

This book is accompanied by an interactive ebook with learning assessment tools (available in the iBooks Store), and a series of short animated videos on various intellectual property topics (available on YouTube).

Presented by the Michelson 20MM Foundation

The Intangible Advantage is published by the Michelson 20MM Foundation and made possible by the generous support of Gary and Alya Michelson.

Educators: Adopt The Book In Your Class

We’re helping educators adopt The Intangible Advantage to teach to their students. Contact us to find out how we can help you adopt the book.